A solicitor who paid off a mortgage using proceeds from his brother’s drug dealing has been banned from the profession. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Paul Simon Green, admitted on 2 January 2008, had bought a property in 2010 which was registered in his name, with all mortgage payments to be made by him.
But the mortgage application had included false information because it did not disclose that Green’s brother James would be contributing to the purchase, making mortgage repayments and living in the property. The money came from the proceeds of James Green’s illegal drug dealing, the tribunal heard.
Over the next five years, James Green made 62 cash payments to his brother’s bank account, coming to almost £50,000.
In 2019 Paul Green notified the Solicitors Regulation Authority he had been interviewed by Hampshire Police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud and money laundering. In May 2024, he was convicted at Southampton Crown Court of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and converting criminal property, namely money. Paul Green was sentenced to 26 months’ imprisonment.
In his sentencing remarks, His Honour Judge Peter Henry rejected the idea he was simply allowing his brother to pay money into his account. The judge said Paul Green was a ‘significant part in the scheme to get the laundering going’ and involved in a plan to set up the mortgage to use drug money to buy the property. The brothers had exchanged ‘triumphant messages’ when the mortgage was paid off, noted the judge.
‘You were hands on with what was going on,’ the judge told Paul Green. ‘And you may have been acting misguidedly, I do not know, to help your brother but it is clearly that you did know very much more than you were prepared to admit.
Paul Green, 47, had expressed to the court how proud he was to be a solicitor, but the judge told him: ‘Sadly, by your criminal conduct, you have thrown all that away. You will have no chance now of continuing with that profession undoubtedly.’
Green had been an associate with Barlow Robbins LLP until 2015 and then moved to Judge Sykes Frixou. He had continued to hold a practising certificate until 2024. There was no suggestion that any of his employers were aware of his conduct outside of practice.
Green offered no mitigation and made an agreed outcome with the SRA that he should be struck off and pay £3,000 costs. This outcome was approved by the tribunal.
